Somari
Somari (full title: Somari the Adventurer) is a pirated port of Sonic the Hedgehog, made for the Famicom by Someri Team and published by Ge De Industry Co. Overview Somari is a well-known pirated Famicom port of Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Megadrive/Genesis featuring Mario in place of Sonic, reported to have been made in 1994 by Somari Team. This game also includes the Spin Dash, a move introduced in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, dating the game to November 24th 1992 (the release date of that game) or after. Also notable is the usage of the Special Stage and the background graphics for Green Hill Zone from the Master System version of Sonic the Hedgehog, almost certainly due to hardware limitations of the Famicom. All of the zones from the Mega Drive version are included, with the exception of Scrap Brain Zone which is unfinished and can only be accessed by savestate hacking. The controls are similar to Sonic the Hedgehog, albeit including the Spin Dash and Somari suddenly slowing down when going into a jump from full speed, a problem also encountered in the Famicom port of Super Mario World by Hummer Team. Oddly, the game includes loops and ramps, although these have somewhat glitchy programming such as the player being able to get permanently stuck on a loop if hit by a badnik as well as passing through one ring when the player runs through it, a glitch also present in Jurassic Boy 2 by Sachen. Also, unlike StH, while rolling you cannot control yourself at all. Somari is considered to be significantly more difficult than StH due to the sometimes excessive amounts of enemies, poor programming at points, poor control and lack of continues. The level design is somewhat flawed, from frequently repeating areas of zones, most noticeably in Marble Zone and Labyrinth Zone, to inescapable pits in Green Hill Zone. You can also get a time over after elapsing 10 minutes, like in the original game. However, it doesn't seem to work in Labyrinth Zone, presumably because of how long it takes to beat each act in this version. Unlike the Mega Drive version, there's only one ending in this game which shows Dr. Robotnik juggling the Chaos Emeralds, which is odd considering that they're nowhere else to be found in the game. Also unlike the original, the player has to reset the console to continue playing. The graphics are mostly taken from StH for the Megadrive, with a few exceptions. The background for Green Hill Zone and the Special Stage graphics are from the Master System version, the sprite of Somari is an edited version of Mario's sprite from Super Mario Bros. 3 and some other graphics were modified on the title screen; namely the removal of the Sega copyright on the emblem and in the bottom right corner, the edit in the title to read Somari and Sonic himself being replaced with Mario in the same pose. The "Sonic Team Presents" screen from the original was also modified to read "Somari Team Presents." The music is mostly taken from the same game, although in much lower quality as well as the Special Stage music being from the Master System version. Somewhat notably, this game was reviewed on Dendy: The New Reality on November 26th 1994, dating the game from November 24th 1992 to that date. Also, the trademark for this game was filed in 1993,http://tmsearch.tipo.gov.tw/TIPO_DRE/servlet/InitLogoPictureWordDetail?sKeyNO=082044624 less than a month after "Sonimari," most likely an earlier title for the game.http://tmsearch.tipo.gov.tw/TIPO_DRE/servlet/InitLogoPictureWordDetail?sKeyNO=082040305 It was also trademarked by a company called Ge De Industry Co., who likely distributed it. Clones Somari has been hacked to produce a few other games: (The Sonic games are in the order that they were released) *Sonic the Hedgehog (Same as Somari but the sprite has been replaced with Sonic and the title screen has been redrawn) *Sonic 3D Blast 5 (Identical to Sonic the Hedgehog but you start in Spring Yard Zone. Published under NT) *Sonic and Knuckles 5 (Uses Sonic & Knuckles' title screen and music, the game starts in Spring Yard Zone. Published under NT) *Sonic 3D Blast 6 (Uses Sonic 3D Blast's title screen and start screen, starts off in Marble Zone. Published under NT) *Family Kid (Replaces Mario with a supposedly original character. Published by Family) *Doraemon (Replaces most of the graphics and music to be more Doraemon themed. Published by Waixing.) *The Hummer (A hack done by EX-Hummer members which replaces the title screen and main character) Sonic the Hedgehog Hacks These hacks replace Somari with Sonic instead and also change the title screen. Sonic The Hedgehog and Sonic 3D Blast 5's title screen is based off of the first StH, Sonic and Knuckles 5 uses the Sonic & Knuckles title screen and Sonic 3D Blast 6 uses the Sonic 3D Blast title screen. Interestingly, the rings that weren't present in the original Somari's Act 1 of Green Hill Zone were added and the inescapable pits in Green Hill Zone were fixed. A common misconception with these games is that Somari was released after the Sonic the Hedgehog hacks. Not so, because while Somari was definitely made around about 1994 (with development starting in 1993), the others were made in 1996 and after. Most enemies in Somari use one of Somari's palettes which makes them use the right colors when compared to the first StH. However, in the hacks they appear blue instead. If you look through the graphic tiles of these hacks, you can find many leftovers that were from Somari like Somari's titles and the unused MARIO title. Also notable is that when doing a soft reset on Sonic 3D Blast 6, the title screen keeps switching between its normal state and some garbled graphics, which is likely a result of removing Somari's title screen graphics and the game switching between two CHR banks, one of which is not meant to be used in this hack. Family Kid Family Kid is a basic hack of Somari, replacing the "Somari Team Presents" screen with the Family logo (which appears in several other pirates, except smaller) and Mario with Family Kid, presumably named after Family TSI Ltd., the company that made it. However, they didn't change the signpost graphics which still have Mario's face on them. As well as this, part of Family Kid's standing sprite is missing for unknown reasons. It's unknown when this hack was made, but it was released on a 2-in-1 multicart along with Aladdin 4. (hack of Aladdin) Doraemon Doraemon was made by Waixing and it's probably the biggest hack of Somari. Somari is replaced by Doraemon, the character from the anime of the same name. With the exception of the Final Zone, the level designs are completely different and most of the graphics and music have been redone. However, it should be noted that some graphics are stolen from Aladdin (the cobras under the spikes in level 3) and Chip and Dale 2. Somewhat notably, in a similar way to Sonic Triple Trouble on the Game Gear you lose 20 rings when hit and not all of them like Somari did (but only 3 still fly out) and unlike him, Doraemon can't drown underwater. The Special Stage was omitted although still accessible through save state hacking; it includes the music and graphics from the original level, although the background is grey as opposed to black for unknown reasons. The Hummer Little is known about this hack and is only known to exist on a 15-in-1 along with some other EX-Hummer games. It completely replaces the title screen, with the one used here having an original character possibly modeled after Sonic the Hedgehog, a logo in English and Chinese and some graphics reused from Final Zone. The main character's sprite is different in this hack and the backgrounds are recolored. This game might be a hack of Sonic & Knuckles 5 as it uses the same music on the title screen and they both start in Spring Yard Zone. = Trivia = *The level select screen (from Sonic the Hedgehog) can be accessed by a cheat code at the title screen. The codes are: **Somari, Sonic hacks and Family Kid: Left, Down, B, A, Right, Up, A, B, Up, Down, Up, Down **Doraemon: A, B, Select, Up, Down, Left, Right, A *The Special Stage is misspelled as "Spacial Stage" on the level select screen and named "Special Zone" on the title cards. As well as this, Spring Yard Zone is misspelled as "Spring Yand Zone" on the level select screen. These spelling errors are present in all of the hacks, with the exception of Doraemon which is in Chinese as opposed to English. *There are unused tiles in Somari's rom which have the banner on the title screen read "Mario" instead of "Somari." This was most likely a development name at the time (not Sonomari, possibly "Mario The Adventurer"?) because the title doesn't seem to fit in with the banner. *The background on the title screen is completely different to that of Green Hill Zone's due to limitations of the Famicom's hardware. *Robotnik is seen juggling the Chaos emeralds in the ending, despite these not being collectable anywhere in the game, and the ending itself won't work on some emulators, causing the game to crash instead. *Somari Team is spelled "Someri Team" on one of the cartridge arts, with the same cart having a 1994 copyright. This spelling is also used on the circuit board and the cart art of AV Bishoujo Girl Fighting. *There is a hack of Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis where Sonic is replaced with Somari but not much is known. The origin is known to be New Zealand. *You can get 255 lives in the game if you beat a level but at the same time die from a time out.(10:00) Your life counter will say 0 and eveything after that will be all tiles. *This game and some of its hacks are common on JY Company's later multicarts, and Somari itself is usually labelled "Somario" there. *Somari appears on the front page image. Gallery m1.jpg|An original copy of the game, complete with box Somari3.jpg|Back of the game's box Somari2.jpg|First release of Somari NT-616.jpg|A unoriginal copy of the game distributed by NT. P10802351.jpg|Another copy cartridge, this one titled "Somari 2" in Chinese p286.gif|A possible(unconfirmed) clone of the game, label reading Sonic Brother. bonio-sonic5.jpg|This could be either Sonic 3D Blast 5 or Sonic and Knuckles 5 somarix.gif|Yet another copy NT-875.jpg|Super Sonic 5, distributed by NT NT-318.jpg|Sonic 3D Blast 6, distributed by NT NT-325.jpg NT-6067.jpg|Currently unknown which version of the game this cart holds Family-kid.jpg|A Family Kid cartridge 5in1somarusuper.jpg|Somari being used in a 5 in 1 125040-8734191-0-29804619-pc.jpg Category:Games Category:Someri Team Category:Platform games Category:Famicom/NES games Category:Mario games Category:Sonic games